Choose Your Happy was held at St Jacob's Market, a sort of popular but old-fashioned shopping area just outside of Waterloo. People ride horses and sell organic food out there. I ultimately found my Happy by going to a store called Taste, which is a house of sauces that allows you to taste a product before purchasing it. I asked for their hottest sauce, and they presented me with a bottle of Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper Puree and told me if I wanted to buy it, I had to taste it first.
Despite never having tried a Super Hot (anything spicier than a Habanero) I knew well that the Scorpion Pepper was the second hottest pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I had been to this store before, but only as a support worker, and I had always felt that, should I succumb to the heat, I might rely on the person I served to support me for the rest of the day, so I'd never pushed myself.
But I was alone, with nothing to lose. So I danced with the Scorpion and found it surprisingly palatable (It's a slow burn that allows you to taste it before the heat sets in). I wound up developing a hot sauce collection because of this day.
This year's theme was Choose Your Own Adventure. So, another theme that values choice. It was held at a campsite, the pamphlet explaining the day was written like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, "If you enjoy nature, turn to page three, if you like competition, turn to page 4, etc." It was small enough that you could read the whole thing, though.
Scheduled events of the day were a Thai-Chi class, canoeing (Did I tell you guys about my canoe accident this summer?), and a camp fire. They also provided board games, some choose-your-own-adventure books, and a photo scavenger hunt.
The adventure I chose for the afternoon was to run around worrying about whether or not I was still doing CCLD (Citizen Centred Leadership, an online course that my organization has paid for me to take) as a session was supposed to happen during EaFy Day hours, and my ride there was leaving before the course would end.
It all worked out. Three of my classmates were also attending EaFy Day, we got the WiFi password from the camp (never been at a campsite with WiFi before), we shared a laptop, and one of them gave me a ride back.
But during the morning, I completed the photo scavenger hunt, in which you have to take a selfie...
...with a tree
...with a pinecone
...with a sign
...with three types of leaves
...with two types of sticks
...in the sunlight
...in the shade
...with something smooth
...with something bumpy
...with a trash bin
...with a red car
...with something round
...eating something
...smelling something refreshing
...with something red
....with something colourful
....with animal tracks.
I'd like to point out that, to win the scavenger hunt, you only needed to get ten out of seventeen, but I got every one. The most difficult was the animal tracks. I was at a loss until somebody gave me a tip in that a person won the year previous by using someone's paw print tattoo. Then it just took a little networking to find someone with such a tattoo. Barring that, I was going to use a shoe print and argue that humans are animals.
I made a self-imposed rule that I couldn't use the same item for two images. For example, I had already taken a selfie with a red leaf and a red car, but I required myself to find something new for the "with something red" photo. I also could have just smelled and then eaten the orange slice for "smelling something refreshing" and "while eating", but instead I used a muffin for one of the images.
I think I might have technically failed the trash bin one. I think the exact wording was "in front of a trash can" and I don't know if what I got qualifies as a "can" and I'm beside it, not in front. But I had my list verified by the person who made the activity, and she didn't burn me for that.
There were like, four other people playing, but I think I'm the only one who got all seventeen, so I'm declaring myself the winner.
No comments:
Post a Comment